Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I don’t understand how a book can end without an ending

All of Us Villians by Amanda Foody, Christine Lynn Herman

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BINGO – Dough (because one of the authors last name is Foody and the characters deal with classism throughout the book) Let’s just get this out of the way. This book was not for me. Every 20 years, the Blood Veil falls and 7 teenagers fight to the death in a tournament to determine which family will control High Magick in Ilvernath. Common magick is, well, common enough for small fixes in everyday life, but high magick is where the real power is. For centuries, […]

There’s a moment that I thought was going to be a phenomenal ending – and then there was a quarter of the book left

Binti: Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

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BINGO – Funky (because of the ending(s)) Binti travels back home with a fellow harmonizer from the Desert People tribe, Mwinye because they know that the Koush, a group of people who represent the majority of Earth are looking for Binti and and her Meduse friend Owku. The Koush and the Meduse have been at war for centuries and the Koush have attacked and destroyed much of Binti’s Himba community including her home in search of this one Meduse. Seems like a bit of an […]

Peter Darling

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

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Peter Darling by Austin Chant is not really a re-telling or extension of the Peter Pan story so much as it is a re-framing of something familiar that once read, makes complete sense. Most of my knowledge of Peter Pan comes from the Disney cartoon and an old recorded stage production starring Mary Martin that we taped off tv. Is this where I admit I have never read Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie? It appears that it is.  Peter Darling is rooted more deeply in the […]

Family

Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

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Two books that take on a similar theme, create two very different titles. The first is for ages 10 and up, but due to the lack of text, younger could read the illustrations will adult supervision for questions. And the second, while aimed at kids, the picture book format could turn some off. It is an art book that really is meant for adults, but the right child (especially with an adult guidance) could find it. All ages can read it, but I would go […]

You are not the arbiter of knowledge, sir. You are its librarian.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

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CBR14 BINGO: Question square (I was going to give this the Gaslight square until I read the author’s note: “This book began as two simple questions: Do words mean different things to men and women? And if they do, is it possible that we have lost something in the process of defining them.” Question square it is.) This one will definitely be on my favorite books of the year list. Hearbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Esme’s father is an Oxford lexicographer working on creating the […]

No one had ever told them that at the end there was a choice and it is not the dying who make it.

The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan

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CBR14 BINGO: Bird square (Full disclosure: this book is not about birds. In my defense of this square filler, the book’s blurb mentions orange-bellied parrots. Parrots do appear in the story, albeit briefly, and I’m counting it because I had to read this book and I want credit for it.) Did you ever read a book that you knew would be considered a masterpiece by a lot of people, could even understand why people would think that and still find the reading of it not worth […]



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